by Jamil Ragland CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT — Three years after the Dobbs decision that struck down the constitutional right to abortion, government leaders and activists recommitted themselves to protecting reproductive rights in Connecticut, even in the face of possible new decisions from the US Supreme Court that could further erode abortion access.
Gov. Ned Lamont; Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz; Gretchen Raffa, chief policy and advocacy officer for Planned Parenthood Votes Connecticut, the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Inc.; and Rep. Gillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, gathered in the Hall of Flags at the state capitol building Tuesday morning to acknowledge the anniversary and recommit themselves to the fight for reproductive rights.
Bysiewicz began by telling the story of Adriana Smith, the pregnant Georgia woman who was declared brain dead in February yet kept alive for more than four months until her unborn fetus could be delivered. Doctors said they had no choice but to keep her alive due to Georgia’s fetal personhood laws, passed in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
“This is not pro-life. This is not health care. This is state control over women’s bodies to its most chilling extreme,” she said.
Bysiewicz stressed that abortion remains safe, legal and protected in Connecticut and noted that the Lamont administration has worked to expand healthcare access and reproductive rights for women. She highlighted shield laws for those seeking and providing abortions and efforts to ensure that the state remains a safe haven for women coming here to seek care.
“The governor and I are strong, strong supporters of reproductive rights in our state. And we’re very proud to work with our constitutional officers, especially our attorney general, who has been a stalwart fighter for reproductive freedom across the country with other attorneys general,” Bysiewicz said. She added that “we’re here to say that we’re never going to stop fighting for dignity, health and reproductive freedom for every person in our beautiful state.”
Even after the Dobbs decision, new challenges to abortion rights are threatening to restrict access in states where abortion remains legal. Planned Parenthood’s Gretchen Raffa highlighted two such efforts.
The first, Medina v. Planned Parenthood, is a case before the Supreme Court that will determine if states are allowed to terminate Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider.
The second situation is the effort by congressional Republicans to use the budget reconciliation bill to defund Planned Parenthood, ban coverage of gender-affirming care for all Medicaid patients, and eliminate healthcare plans that include abortion coverage from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
“So let’s call defunding Planned Parenthood what it is: a backdoor abortion ban,” she said. “The reconciliation bill is abortion opponents’ latest attempt to end abortion in the United States, and they’re willing to hurt patients and the healthcare system to do it. The consequences of this bill – if it goes through – are catastrophic. President Trump promised to leave abortion up to the states, but the reconciliation bill is just a sneaky attack that would make it harder for everyone, everywhere, to get an abortion.”
Rep. Gillian Gilchrest, co-chair of the Reproductive Rights Caucus, said Connecticut has opportunities to take action. She pointed to the recent passage of a law that would require all state hospitals, regardless of religious affiliation, to provide emergency abortions for all patients facing a medical crisis, as required by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. In early June, the Trump administration rescinded Biden-era guidance that made this a requirement across the nation.
Gilchrest also said that if the Supreme Court rules that Planned Parenthood can be removed from Medicaid, the state must be ready to act.
“If and when this federal government takes Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, we need to step up as a state and ensure that everyone who needs to receive family planning services can receive them at Planned Parenthood, by putting up the money,” she said. “We need to be clear that we will continue to be a state that stands up and protects women’s health. And so words are not enough. We need to take action.”
Gov. Lamont said that he was very surprised by the court’s decision in 2022, as the federal government and the courts have been fighting to expand individual rights since the birth of the nation.
“They were labor rights. They were civil rights. They were women’s rights. They were rights to clean air. They were the rights to clean water. That’s what our government was doing,” he said. “So what struck me about the Dobb’s decision – for the first time in such a dramatic way – I saw the courts rolling back rights, in this case women’s rights, something that I think is very contrary to what this country is all about.”